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Blog Posts and Lists
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Whither Poetry? (an update)
One of the things I've noticed during school visits at both the elementary and middle school level is that kids really respond to poetry. The most interesting thing about that? The kids who are the school's "problem" kids often pay the closest attention. They are able to follow long poems such as "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, and can sort out what's going on in poems with obscure (or nonsense) words in them, such as "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll.
There's no reason that poetry has to be relegated to a one-week unit, assuming that the teacher has time to get to it. And this is because there are poems and poetry collections that fit extremely well into existing school curricula.
Studying geography? Try Got Geography!, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins. Studying the planets? Don't miss Douglas Florians Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars or And Then There Were Eight by Laura Purdie Salas. Studying explorers or pioneers? Try Trailblazers: Poems of Discovery by Bobbi Katz.
Studying Civil Rights? Try A Wreath for Emmett Till or Sweethearts of Rhythm: The Story of the Greatest All-Girl Swing Band in the World by Marilyn Nelson, Miss Crandall's School for Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color by Elizabeth Alexander and Marilyn Nelson, Birmingham 1963 or Becoming Billie Holliday or Dear Mr. Rosenfeld by Carole Boston Weatherford.
Studying animals and/or habitat? Try Valerie Worth's Animal Poems, illustrated by I.N.K. blogger Steve Jenkins, The Seldom Ever Shady Glades by Sue Van Wassenhove, If Not for the Cat by Jack Prelutsky, Vulture View by April Pulley Sayre (again illustrated by Steve Jenkins), Feathers by Eileen Spinelli, The Company of Crows by Marilyn Singer, The Cuckoo's Haiku: and Other Birding Poems by Michael J. Rosen, or Mites to Mastodons by Maxine Kumin (or one of many more books on the topic).
Studying natural science? By all means, pick up one of these books by Joyce Sidman: Ubiquitous, Dark Emperor: And Other Poems of the Night, Song of the Water Boatman, Butterfly Eyes: And Other Secrets of the Meadow. Or try something like Shape Me a Rhyme by Jane Yolen or Chatter, Sing, Roar, Buzz: Poems About the Rain Forest by Laura Purdie Salas.
Interested in studying biographies? There's Twelve Rounds to Glory: The Story of Muhammad Ali by Charles R. Smith, Jr., Your Own, Sylvia: a verse portrait of Sylvia Plath by Stephanie Hemphill, The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography in Poems of Juan Francisco Manzano by Margarite Engle, Becoming Billie Holliday by Carole Boston Weatherford, Eureka! Poems About Inventors by Joyce Sidman, or Jazz ABZ by Wynton Marsalis (biographies of jazz greats).
Is it history you're after? Try The Brothers' War: Civil War Voices in Verse or VHERSES: A Celebration of Outstanding Women by J. Patrick Lewis or America at War, edited by Lee Bennet Hopkins
The point is that for nearly any area of study, a poetry collection can be found that relates to it. And it should be found, because kids who have a hard time sitting still for prose lectures pay attention really well to poems. I suspect it's because of the use of lots of imagery and active verbs, the rhythm and, when used, rhyme, that grabs and holds the attention of kids who don't or can't always listen to prose.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Playing games with information
"It's a waste of time."
Meanwhile, the video and computer game industry has charged ahead without me: over 65% of U.S. households have video games, 40% of all players are female, 26% are over age 50, and the industry reportedly brought in $10.5 billion in 2009 alone.
statistics source
What has inspired me to rethink this topic is Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, by Jane McGonigal,Ph.D. The author and game designer explains the psychological reasons behind the popularity of games as well as discussing their potential to be used for the common good. The alternate reality games she specializes in "...challenge players to tackle real-world problems at a planetary-scale: hunger, poverty, climate change, or global peace..." Examples shown on her web site include World Without Oil, SuperBetter (to facilitate recovery from illness or injury), and EVOKE, a social network game designed to help empower people all over the world to invent creative solutions to our most urgent social problems. The book's title is based on a common experience of many players...that reality is simply not as satisfying as gaming. McGonigal details a variety of techniques to jazz up real life in order to engage people the way that successful games do.
The connection to my own projects lies in finding the overlap between the qualities and objectives she describes and my own process of writing informational books for children and related activities. At minimum, a game must have these four components:
- A goal or series of goals the players work to achieve
- The rules that restrict how the goal may be reached yet foster creativity and strategic thinking to do so
- The feedback system which lets players know how close they are to achieving the goal
- Voluntary participation: the players must choose to undertake the work involved to play
Some common game elements are:
Quests motivate players to keep going. Is there a way to tie a quest to a nonfiction book? Levels are increasingly difficult sections of the game that players reach by solving problems, dodging obstacles, or otherwise improving upon their performance. Could a nonfiction book have levels? Another factor that's increasingly important in gaming is teamwork, where people collaborate to help each other succeed in the game. How can teamwork be brought to the nonfiction experience? These concepts, a description of a public game-based school, and much more are why reading Reality is Broken has been so inspiring.
One of the reasons I'm pursuing the gaming angle is because of an episode that happened a few years ago. Two brothers were given one of my picture books about space...it was the weekend, they associated "books" with school, and therefore neither one even wanted to look at it. They're both good students, but... Ouch! I hate to think that a kid has to steel himself to tolerate reading a book because he anticipates that it will be so unrewarding. Games are rewarding (that's obvious!) so how to harness that quality is the question.
Can I come up with a game based on one of my books, say The Shocking Truth about Energy? After covering electricity generation and the main sources of energy in use today, the book ends with four pages of energy-saving ideas. How about a game that would not only help reduce the use of fossil fuels but would increase exercise time for students? For the 10,000* Mile Quest, players add up their bicycle, running, and walking mileage either individually or in teams made up of classrooms, grades, or schools, depending on how the game is organized. Players can use a phone app such as EveryTrail to track miles or calculate the length of routes using online tools such as MapQuest. There could be a group web site with a graph or other feedback so everyone can see their progress. Gasoline NOT burned because of the game could also be shown. A group chat area would allow players to exchange ideas about how to get more miles faster. Secret items could be hidden along various routes to allow players to score bonus points. The game could last a week, a month, or an entire school year, with various milestones along the way to celebrate. This needs more refining but that's the general idea.
*or whatever number seems appropriate
What about adding gaming strategies to digital books or apps? For the last few months I've been researching ebooks and apps with an eye to the multiple ways authors can utilize them and am intrigued with the possibilities of incorporating motion and other types of interactivity. A few examples...presenting information could be made much more fun and gamelike by hiding it at first, so the reader has to search for it. Wouldn't it be nice to include a demonstration in many cases? I'm working on a math picture book right now in which it would be terrific to have a movable shape for readers to manipulate on certain pages. Or how about having the reader assemble something? To see an amazing example of an educational app that reportedly inspires students to delve deeply into the topic, check out Frog Dissection on Teachers with Apps. It's not a game per se, but has many of the characteristics.
The typical fantasy world kind of game still doesn't interest me, and probably never will...but using gaming concepts to showcase real information, engage readers, and even create solutions to genuine problems sounds like a game worth playing.
my web site
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
The Urge to "Correct" History
I've been wrestling with this problem recently, as I toss around ideas for possible book projects. It's always fun to throw open my notebooks and let ideas I've jotted down over the years jump out and fight for attention. The bad part comes when I get excited about one of the stories, begin researching it, and realize I'm facing the old Herodotus dilemma.
Sometimes it's a simple of matter of not knowing. Take pirates, for example. Everyone loves these thieving murderers (including my 4-year-old daughter), but there's a serious shortage of primary sources, and hardly anything from the pirates' own point of view. Even the best, most exhaustively researched adult pirate books are riddled with lines like, "Blackbeard may very well have said…" and "It was at this point that Bartholomew Roberts probably decided…" The most painful false lead of all involves an 11-year-old boy named John King. What we know is that in November 1716, somewhere in the Caribbean, King and his mother were on a ship that was boarded and plundered by the pirate Sam Bellamy. King declared he wanted to join Bellamy's crew. His mom said no. The boy threatened to throw himself into the sea unless he was allowed to become a pirate. His mom let him go.
Shouldn't this be the opening scene of an all-time great middle grade history book? The story has everything: a young protagonist, action, danger, glimpses into an exotic world, and, in the end, tragedy. In 2006 underwater archaeologists found the remains of Bellamy's ship, which sank off the coast of Cape Cod in 1717. Among the wreckage were the bones of a boy of about 12. So King was on the ship for a year, and there's no doubt his adventures during that year could pack a ripping non-fiction book. Only, we can't know what those adventures were. With great reluctance, a writer of non-fiction has to pass on John King. Maybe put it on the list of historical fiction to write some day.
Then there's the tantalizing tale of Elijah Nicholas Wilson, another adventure-seeking 11 year old. In the early 1850s, Wilson ran away from his frontier home (he was sick of herding sheep) to live with a Shoshone chief named Washakie and his family. He learned the language, learned to hunt buffalo like a young brave, and, best of all for my purposes, wrote a memoir called White Indian Boy, describing his years with the Shoshone.
For a brief exciting moment, I became convinced this had the makings of a fantastic kids' history book. And Wilson's book does have a lot of great stories, but are they the right stories? Well, Wilson comes across as kind of a jerk. He's constantly fighting with other kids; he nearly sparks an intra-tribal war by smacking a girl in a squabble over a fishing pole. Though actually, these kinds of details make him sound like a real kid, which is a good thing.
The bigger issue is the one Herodotus spoke of, the fact that Wilson's stories just don't happen in the right order, or at all. That is, he gives us lots of brilliant slice-of-life scenes, but no narrative arc, no climax. He spends a couple of years with the Shoshone, then leaves for what he thinks will be a short visit home, and never returns to his Indian family. He goes on to have other adventures, including a stint as a Pony Express rider, but that's another chapter of his life, and, quite unreasonably, not the part I care about. I really wish I could "correct these defects" by having Wilson marry a Shoshone girl, or help lead his adoptive people's struggle to hold onto their traditional lands.
Or has my thinking become too Hollywood? Am I missing the more important point: that real life, meandering and messy, is more interesting than a perfectly structured plot? I don't know. I just know that every time I visit a school, kids tell me they think history is boring. Now that's a defect we definitely have to correct.
Monday, March 28, 2011
"What If?"
and a seed is planted. I don't know that I would ever take this any further, but it is exhilarating to have my mind tumble in a new direction.
What kind of random things have been making you think 'What if....?'"
Hi Elizabeth,
Since you asked what kinds of things make my mind ask, "What if?" I'll say that many of my own science and math picture books are based on "What if?" questions that I asked, going back to childhood:
"What if I could ride my bike to the Sun -- how long would it take?"
"How about if I rode to the distant stars?"
"What if I could ride to the end of the Universe? What would I find there? Would there be a wall with a sign: "END OF UNIVERSE--DO NOT GO BEYOND THIS POINT"? (I really do remember imagining that sign, not because I really thought it could exist but as a way of expressing the mind-boggled feeling I got from contemplating the idea of a finite universe.)
"What if I could hop like a frog? How far could I go in proportion to my own body size?"
"What if someone filled an Olympic-size swimming pool with ice cream and I dived in--how long would it take me to eat my way through the pool?"
"If I grew to the height of a redwood tree, how high would a basketball hoop be if it elevated proportionally?"
And so on. In various ways, these musings ended up becoming books.
When I visit schools, the kids' top three questions are:
1) How old are you? (Teachers always say, "No, don't ask that question!")
2) How much money do you make? (Teachers say, "No, no! Never ask that question!")
3) Where do you get your ideas? (Teachers say, "That's a good question!")
I answer the first question by telling them what year I was born. (I don't mind if they know how old I am. How else will they learn what a 59-year old looks like compared to a 29-year old?) I answer the second question by telling them how much (little) I make on the sale of one book. And I answer the third question by telling children I get many of the ideas for my books from questions I asked when I was their age, and that they will get plenty of great ideas themselves if they wonder about the world. In other words, if they ask questions like, "What if?"
I also point out that I wrote about my love for the word "if" in my math alphabet book, G Is for Googol, under the letter "I" which, in my book, is for "If." With the word "if," I tell readers, you can imagine anything and sometimes you can use math to figure out what would happen if it were true.
What if we started a nationwide discussion on what to do about it? My two cents: more wondering, not more testing.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Interesting Nonfiction for Kids: National Youth Art Month Books
Youth Art Month is an annual observance each March to emphasize the value of art education for all children and to encourage support for quality school art programs. Youth Art Month was created in 1961 by ACMI, a non-profit association of art and craft materials manufacturers, in cooperation with the NAEA. In 1984, ACMI created CFAE to administer the national Youth Art Month program and encourage funding for the program.
Harvesting Dreams: Hundertwasser for Kids
By Barbara Stieff
Prestel USA August 2008
The Story of the World's Greatest Paintings
By Charlie Ayres
Thames & Hudson November 2010
Art in Action 1: Introducing Young Children to the World of Art with 24 Creative Projects Inspired by 12 Masterpieces (Art in Action Books)
By Maja Pitamic (Author)
Mike Norris (Contributor)
Barron's Educational Series April 2010
Art and Architecture (Experimenting With Everyday Science)
By Stephen M. Tomecek
Chelsea House Publications June 2010
As always, my goal is to suggest books with these criteria:
1) Nonfiction
2) Published recently
3) Not previously recommended by myself on INK
Linda asked me to write for INK the first month of it's conception based on, I assume, my reputation for promoting art-themed Children's nonfiction books. So, here I am, three years later, still talking about art books. Thanks to INK for giving me the platform to voice my love of art books... and to hang out with an amazing group of nonfiction writers.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
The Problem of Knowing
The Problem of Knowing
Nonfiction has, at its roots, knowing. Paying attention to the real world. At times, that causes pain for reader and writer. No better time than the past few weeks of tsunami, earthquake, nuclear disaster, bombings, and the like to bring this to the fore. It's been a challenging for anyone watching the news and taking the time to understand the pain and problems for our planet and its people.
During the first thirteen years of my career, when I wrote environmental articles and books for adults and middle grade students, full time, I faced this issue a lot. Acid rain, deforestation, global warming, endangered species—you name it, I wrote about it, while working at National Wildlife Federation, interning at Nat Geo, and, later, authoring 27 middle grade books about biomes, continents, endangered species and the like. Been there. Seen stuff. So the issue of personal grieving about the planet's issues has been an ongoing process for me.
Unfortunately, my young readers don't yet know that the world can go through these horrible things and regular life will still go on, at least for those of us not directly impacted. Only experience can really give you that, although comforting grandmas, grandpas, aunties and other elders, can help, too.
As a writer about the environment, I've built an internal wall, the same wall that most folks build with age. This past week, by dropping that wall, I could walk away from the news barrage and plant peas, and do a school visit, a teacher inservice, a young author's conference where we celebrated words and wildness and, for a time, did not try to generate anything but sheer animal joy. Thank you, wall, you come in handy. Just don't stay closed.
The act of writing and reading, fortunately, seems to heal our brains, too. For me, science has a comfort to it: the comfort of being small, of being connected to the wondrous. That was why I wrote Stars Beneath Your Bed: The Surprising Story of Dust. Or Trout Are made of trees. But on a daily basis, here's what I use for my shot of big thinking as healing:
My husband keeps me updated on the number of earthlike planets estimated, which seems to keep increasing. Cool!
Just thinking about this kind of stuff lifts you out of everyday.
Ted Talks. Big thinking ideas and passionate people give one hope for the world.
My husband also keeps me updated on the progression of spring, the mischief of squirrels, and what the grackles have gotten into today. It's the small things that matter; you just need to lose scale when it comes to wonder and joy. Let the smallest seed sprouting be a blast of joy. Hmmm…I think there's a poem about that. Anyone remember the name?
Time in nature is probably the best thing for nature writers and kids right now. A recent study showed that something like five minutes outdoors can lift your mood. (Should probably look up that study. Instead, I'm going outside and listen to Whit-throated Sparrows.) Anyway, an organization that supports that effort, connecting our children with nature is the Children and Nature Network.
One place to find comfort is, of course, in charity. One possibility is this to bid on children's lit things to raise money for Japan:
Charity to the Earth would be a good choice, too. More than ever, those who are not directly in contact with the recent tragedies need to tend their fields, help their part of the Earth to be healthy and productive. That could mean planting an extra row of vegetables. Or, it might mean planting extra fennel, parsley, milkweed for caterpillars and butterflies. Or helping an environmental charity such as these:
I draw strength, too, from fellow nonfiction writers, I don't know Susan Campbell Bartoletti but I'm glad she exists just because she stares historical awful in the face, seemingly unflinching, and writes. If I need a relentlessly spunky person, I just call up Gretchen Woelfle. So many INKers are strong not just from life, but also from the writing life of nonfiction.
Yes, probably doing is the best comfort. Writing is part of that doing. So is planting seeds. Helping plants and ideas grow. You don't have to be strong or have a pushy voice, or even a powerful hand. You just have to be persistent. For the tender hearts of so many who love nature and who care for the Japanese people, or the suffering in Ivory Coast, or New Zealand, or Libya, the first part of the job is to endure. Walk away from the news for a while. Feed that bit of deep joy in you in whatever way keeps you strong.
April Pulley Sayre
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Janis Joplin and Ann Angel
JANIS JOPLIN: RISE UP SINGING by Ann Angel, won the 2011 YALSA Nonfiction Award. "From the cover art and the interior design to the compelling personal narrative, this is a pearl [!] of a book," said YALSA Nonfiction Award Chair Don Latham.
Why Janis Joplin?
I loved her unique style and powerful, powerful voice. She just blew me away the first time I heard her and, somehow, her story has always broken my heart even as it encouraged me to be an individual. Her independence gave me the courage to be independent and her uniqueness gave me the courage to be me. When I listen to her, the experience is actually visceral in the way I fall into her blues.
What does she offer to young adults today?
I think she's a flawed hero who continues to serve as a role model for teens who are looking for their own talents, unique style, and independence. She also serves as a cautionary tale because of her death.
How did the book come to be?
I've wanted to write Janis's biography for as long as I can remember. At first, I thought she'd be a good chapter in a book about women in rock and roll. But then Susan Van Metre, my editor for Such a Pretty Face, and I were talking and I told her I'd always wanted to write about Janis. She also loved Janis. I wrote a proposal and it was accepted. I had no idea how I was going to obtain new interviews because I'd heard that most family and friends were pretty untrusting of writers who wanted to analyze Janis.
Whom did you interview about her? How close to her – family, friends – did you get?
It took quite awhile, but I managed an off-the-record interview with Laura Joplin [her sister] who said the book was a good idea but didn't want to be included in formal interviews. From there I interviewed photographers who had met Janis, Janis's old bandmates, and her road manager. Much of my interviewing was with guitarist and friend Sam Andrew, and with Janis's good friend and publicist Myra Friedman. Myra herself had written Buried Alive, which chronicles Janis's stardom and struggle with drugs. Myra and I continued to talk with one another in Sunday afternoon telephone conversations long after the interviews were done. She died this past October and I miss hearing from her. She had so many more stories to tell.
How did you decide how much to include?
I was limited to 100 pages by my contract, so that limited me a bit. My editor told me to be honest and thorough, while keeping in mind this is an introduction to Janis for most YA readers. She and I both agreed that I would include the drugs and sex and alcohol and, if it became too heavy-handed, it would be dealt with in editing. I don't think much, if anything, was removed in that way.
Tell me about the photo research.
The pictures took almost two years to research and select. I would contact photographers whose work I had seen, and they would email me with all of their Janis photos. I'd select a few that represented Janis at different periods of her life. The web was an invaluable tool here. Toward the end, I had to fill in periods of time when few photos were taken, or that were only recorded by family who had promised childhood photos, but a change in the estate's management made them too slow in coming. I spent long hours trying to fill those in. Sam Andrew helped a lot with photos he owned. But I also found some of the strongest photos though the Port Arthur Library, the Museum of the Gulf Coast, and the Smithsonian collections.
Did you have input to the book design?
I was fortunate in that Susan, my wonderful editor, asked me what I hoped to see. As I recall, I told her I wanted a book with large images that were woven throughout the book, pages large enough so that the book could be set down and remain open to the photo pages. At one point, I mentioned that I would like to see a collage effect. I'm not sure if that influenced the amazing designer Maria Middleton, or if she came up with the psychedelic collage effect on her own. But I just love it. When I first saw the page designs, I had trouble setting them down and actually found myself petting the pages.
What sort of response have you gotten from young people, teachers, librarians?
High school teachers and librarians who work with teens get it that flawed heroes are important to the teen experience. Janis can do for teens now what she did for many of us back when we listened to her the first time. In my award acceptance speech, I said that I believe Janis has a necessary place in young adult nonfiction. "Who better to show teens that theirs are not the only messy and imperfect lives?" Who better, then, to show hypercritical teens that, despite their own flaws, "they can rise up and become the heroes in their own stories." From the responses I'm getting, almost all extremely positive, teachers, librarians and young people recognize that value.
What was your reaction to winning the YALSA award?
It felt like I was walking with diamonds on the soles of my shoes for at least a month. I still can't believe it! But then I think about Janis. I used to dream about her and she loved the idea of a do-over in my dreams. I think her energy and voice -- both of which have survived over all these years --made this award possible. I'm so grateful to her influence even from the grave. And I'm so grateful to the entire editorial team that loved this book enough to give it their very best.
PS. Ann will answer comments and questions from you on the Comments page.
Breaking News from Ann: "I just learned yesterday that Janis Joplin won the 2010 Council for Wisconsin Writers Kingery/Derleth Book-length Nonfiction Award. As a YA crossover book, I'm pleased that the book was in competition with adult nonfiction, showing that it truly bridges generations. The book is also a CCBC Choices 2011 book in Biography and Autobiography.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Domo Arigato
It will be a long time before the Japanese people can resume their peaceful, everyday pleasures of slurping their soup, folding a piece of paper into an elegant animal, or admiring the beauty of a bunch of rocks placed just so.
Crisis has a way of drawing people together, as does simply getting to know each other. Today I'd like to mention a few books that can help kids appreciate the multi faceted Japanese culture.
Japan: Over 40 Activities to Experience Japan—Past and Present by Debbi Michiko Florence
The ABC"s of Origami. Paper Folding for Children by Claude Sarasas. Beautiful illustrations, easy to follow instructions.
Honda. The Boy Who Dreamed of Cars by Mark Weston. Interesting biography of Soichiro Honda. Now I want a Honda motorcycle.
Old Japan. The Hands-on Approach to History by Andrew Haslam and Clare Doran. Carp streamers, kabuki theater, laquered bento boxes—fun.
Cooking the Japanese Way by Reiko Weston Miso soup, sukiyaki, and green tea—yum.
Games People Play! Japan. By Philip Brooks Pachinko Machines, Sumo wrestlers, and Japanese Doll Festival all in one book.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Paintbox on the Frontier
Friday, March 18, 2011
Three Schools: Six Questions
In the last week I've been the guest author at three elementary schools in the
A Digression: A Letter from Shane after I visited his school:
Dear Jan Greenberg, I always fall asleep during the period right after lunch. But our teacher Mrs. Poetter told us you were coming and to sit up straight. I expected an old lady with gray hair to hobble in. Then WOW, you showed up. You were pretty entertaining, even though most of your books are about girls. By the way, I was the kid in the back row wearing the letter jacket.
So OK, I received that letter-um- 15 years ago.
Anyway. In the first school, the amazing art teacher had done four different art projects, which lined the hallways: collages inspired by Romare Bearden: Collage of Memories, self-portraits based on Chuck Close Up Close, a lively group of Campbell's Soups a la Andy Warhol: Prince of POP, and splatter paintings in a style similar to Jackson Pollock's Lavender Mist in Action Jackson. At each school I was thrilled to find the students prepared, attentive, and eager to ask questions. What I found interesting was the fact that the three groups of children, all from very different backgrounds, asked me the same questions. In retrospect, I might have been funnier, more articulate, more thoughtful. "If only I had said this," I told myself later. "If only I'd said that." So here are some revised responses to the most frequently asked questions from my school visits.
On Martha Graham: Making Appalachian Spring:
"Why did you write a book about that lady?"
Martha Graham was the first great modern American dancer. She didn't wear toe shoes or tutus. (Power point: A Little Dancer by Degas next to an illustration of one of Martha's dancers by Brian Floca.) Imagine crouching down and then with your stomach muscles leaping up, breathing in and out. The dancers often had sore muscles and bruised knees but once they understood Martha's way of dancing, they were happy they'd stuck with it. I work with (collaborate with) Sandra Jordan on most of my books on the arts and we were fascinated by the way Martha worked with her dance troupe, the composer who wrote the music and the artist who created the sets.
"The illustrations are neat. Does the artist (Brian Floca) do the pictures for all of your books?
Only two of our books have illustrations, both in water colors, but they were made by two different illustrators. We loved working with both illustrators, Robert Andrew Parker on Action Jackson and Brian Floca. Often editors don't want the author to communicate with the illustrator because conflicts can arise. But Brian, who spent a lot of time photographing the Martha Graham dancers rehearsing and also watching an old tape of the first performance of Appalachian Spring in 1944, wanted our input. That doesn't mean he always took our suggestions. But he was interested in what we had to say. It was fun sitting together with Brian and our editor Neal Porter in his apartment in
On Writing:
"What's your favorite thing about being a writer?
I love the writing process. But nonfiction requires a lot of research before you can sit down and write the story. When we wrote a biography of Vincent Van Gogh, we read hundreds of letters that he wrote to his brother Theo and more than twenty-five biographies. Finding the heart in the story is vital and sometimes it takes traveling to the places where the main character lived and worked to discover it. It was magical going to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and to Provence in the south of France where he painted. Driving by fields of sunflowers and walking down the streets of Arles where he made some of his greatest works, including Starry Night, and reading first hand accounts by people who knew him, gave us a deeper sense of the man, of the artist, than any art history text could do. Think of eating an artichoke, peeling off the leaves, one by one, until you get to the delicious heart inside. ( Power point has changed the way I do presentations. No more fumbling with transparencies in overhead projectors. No more slide machines that break in the middle of a talk.)
"What's your advice on how to be a writer?"
Don't leave the room. And be prepared to write a million lousy words before you get it right.
"How much money do you make?"
"How old are you?"
Hmmm. I think I'll answer those two questions next time.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Women's History Month, Nonfiction Style
What I would like to do here is share a few of my favorite nonfiction books about women. I was going to write about Tami Lewis Brown's Soar, Elinor! but Marfe beat me to it just yesterday! But I will add to her comments that this book is really something special—one of those picture books you want to leave on a coffee table for a conversation starter. Both Brown and Elinor Smith are names you want to know.
There are several books I love that are collective stories, pulling in many women who impacted a particular area of interest. Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women, by Catherine Thimmesh, is a shining example of this approach. This book had me at the cover, and it's a staple for any women's history collection. Independent Dames by Laurie Halse Anderson is also a must-have. This book is so chock full of information it probably could have filled three books. And Remember the Ladies: 100 Great Women by Cheryl Harness is a book I have referred to and shared with others countless times. Wings and Rockets: The Story of Women in Air and Space by Jeannine Atkins is especially captivating for me, as is Anita Silvey's I'll Pass for Your Comrade: Women Soldiers in the Civil War. This little-covered area of interest long overlooked is done in stellar Silvey fashion.
In the single-female category, I have my favorites as well. There is When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson, the Voice of a Century, by Pam Munoz Ryan; Barbara Kerley's What to do About Alice?, which, yes, I have written about before, but I can't help it, I simply love it; Shana Corey's You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer, Kathleen Krull's A Woman for President: The Story of Victoria Woodhull, Gretchen Woelfle's Jeannete Rankin: Political Pioneer, Vicki Cobb's Marie Curie, Susanna Reich's Clara Schumann, and for older readers, Bull's Eye: A Photobiography of Annie Oakley by Sue Macy, and Jane Addams: Champion of Democracy by Judith Bloom Fradin and Dennis Brindell Fradin.
A few new and forthcoming books I can't wait to get my hands on include Candace Fleming's Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart. I am a big fan of Fleming's work and am anxious to see how she handled this topic. The other is Penny Coleman's forthcoming book on a subject near and dear to my heart. The title says it all: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, A Friendship that Changed the World.
So there you have it, my small tribute to women's history in the shape of a few favorite books for kids and teens. There are many, many others on my shelves that I simply didn't have the room to discuss here, but there's always next year!


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Imagine an 85-year-old staying healthy through balance exercises with feedback from sensors built into a wristwatch that also connects with her family in case of a fall. Or a 60-year-old who ensures he's taking his cancer medications appropriately with a smartphone app that links him with his clinician. Technology can help individuals achieve personal goals and stay in regular communication with their care teams. Technologies developed in partnership with users and health care systems also enhance providers' knowledge to deliver better care.
UC Davis has a vision to make technology work to improve health across a person's lifespan. The Healthy Aging in a Digital World Institute will unite a diverse team of experts to design, develop and evaluate creative solutions to enhance a person's daily life. We envision a world where personal devices, home monitors and mobile apps empower people to drive their health, where seamless communication generates knowledge that informs practice.
When you give to Healthy Aging in a Digital World, you support a world-class center that advances independence for older adults and health knowledge for their providers.
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Chong Porter
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Welcome to Eisinger Orthodontics!
Welcome to the Website of Dr. John J. Eisinger DDS. Our orthodontic practice has been creating beautiful faces and stunning smiles in Monterey County for over 30 years. For your convenience, we have offices in Monterey, Carmel, and Marina. We want you to feel comfortable in our office! For those patients who speak Spanish, we are able to accommodate you! We have team members ready to help translate to facilitate communication.
Mission Statement
My professional mission is to create a positive influence in the facial esthetics, personality, and health of our patients so that they will achieve their highest potential in life with the confidence of a smile that is a symbol of health and beauty. We are committed to achieving the most beautiful smiles with a life-changing experience through expertise, warmth, and genuine human kindness.
Dr. Eisinger and his Team practice a philosophy of "Face Driven Treatment Planning" to allow us to prescribe the therapy best suited for each individual, regardless of age. Whether you are an adult, adolescent, or child we are committed to creating the smile you have always wanted by utilizing the latest technological advances in the orthodontic profession. These technologies including the Damon System, Insignia Advanced Smile Design, Damon Clear, Spark Clear Aligner System, and the Molar to Molar AdvanSync Appliance ensure that you will receive the most time-efficient and highest quality care possible.


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
The new pool will be located in Griffin Park at the same spot as the old outdoor pool.
Show All Answers
Pool construction is slated to start in 2022; the new facility is scheduled to be complete in the fall of 2023.
With support from pool consultant, Burbach Aquatics, the design was developed by an Outdoor Pool Committee appointed by Mayor Harding.
The Pool Committee members are Becky Burke, Mike Mueller, Rachel Arbach; Heather DeBoer; Paula Huizenga; Kelsey McQuistion; Becky Spoehr; Paula Weeldreyer.
Burbach Aquatics, Inc. began business in 1978 and has been providing municipalities with professional design and consulting services for more than 40 years. The company has designed more than 600 new pools including the pools in Beresford and Vermillion.
No, this is a City of Pierre project.


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device pccardDESCRIPTION
The driver implements the PC Card bus. The driver supports all PC Card bridges in the system.TUNABLES
The driver supports the following tunable parameters, which may be added to /boot/loader.conf or set via the sysctl(8) command:- hw.pccard.debug
- Non-zero values cause more verbose information to be printed when a 16-bit PC Card is inserted or removed.
- hw.pccard.cis_debug
- Non-zero value causes the CIS parsing of the 16-bit PC Card to be much more verbose and include a complete CIS dump.
- /dev/pccard0.cis
- This exclusive-use device will report all the CIS chains present in a PC Card, if a 16-bit PC Card is inserted in the slot. Only one user at a time may access the CIS. The CIS is presented as the relevant byte stream from the PC Card. For CIS tuples in Attribute Memory (the default), only the even locations are presented (the ODD locations are undefined per the standard). For CIS tuples in Common Memory, every byte is presented to the user. Decoding of the CIS tuples is done via a userland program. All tuples are presented to the user.


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A bloodless bank heist that netted more than $45 million has left even cyber crime experts impressed by the technical sophistication, if not the virtue, of the con artists who pulled off a remarkable internationally organized attack.
"It was pretty ingenious," Pace University computer science professor Darren Hayes said Friday.
On the creative side of the heist, a small team of highly skilled hackers penetrated bank systems, erased withdrawal limits on prepaid debit cards and stole account numbers. On the crude end, criminals used handheld devices to change the information on the magnetic strips of old hotel key cards, used credit cards and depleted debit cards.
Seven people were arrested in the U.S., accused of operating the New York cell of what prosecutors said was a network that carried out thefts at ATMs in 27 countries from Canada to Russia. Law enforcement agencies from more than a dozen nations were involved in the investigation, which was being led by the Secret Service.
Here's how it worked:
First, the hackers, quite possibly insiders, broke into computer records at a few credit card processing companies, first in India and then the U.S. This has happened before but here's what was new: They didn't just take information. They actually raised the limit on prepaid debit cards kept in reserves at two large banks.
"It's pretty scary if you think about it. They changed the account balances. That's like the holy grail for a thief," said Chris Wysopal, co-founder of security company Veracode.
The next step was technically simpler, almost an arts-and-crafts activity.
Crime ring members in 27 countries ran used plastic cards, just about anything with a standard magnetic strip, through handheld magnetic stripe encoders, widely available online for less than $300. Those devices allow users to change information on magnetic stripes or to write new cards with a simple swipe.
In this case, the stripes were rewritten with information from the hackers. That allowed the thieves to turn the cards into gold, instantly transforming them into prepaid debit cards with unlimited amounts of money stored on them.
Setting planinto motion
Finally it was time for action.
On two pre-arranged days — once in December and again in February — criminals loaded with the lucrative debit cards and PIN numbers, headed into city streets around the world, racing from one ATM to the next, often taking out the maximum the cash machine would allow in a single transaction: $800.
In December, they worked for about 2 1/2 hours, reaping $5 million worldwide in about 4,500 transactions. Two months later, apparently buoyed by their success, they hit the ATMs for 10 hours straight, collecting $40 million in 36,000 transactions.
The New York money runners made off with $2.8 million, according to the indictment, a fraction of the total amount yielded by the heist.
Players kept a cut but sent the bulk of the money back to the masterminds through wire transfers and sometimes in person, prosecutors said.
One New York suspect, Elvis Rodriguez, 24, planned to travel to Romania in January to pay about $300,000 to organizers of the operation, but American Airlines canceled the reservation because the airline was concerned it had been booked with a stolen credit card, according to the criminal complaint. The reservation was canceled, but the suspect paid for the trip in cash, it said.
Authorities said they seized his iPhone and found a photo of him and another suspect posing with a stack of cash between them in a car.
Great minds and mules
"There were obviously a lot of great minds behind this exploit, and then there were the pawns, the mules. They are entirely exploitable," said Phyllis Scheck, vice president at the security firm McAfee who has testified to Congress about how banks and small businesses need to prepare for cyber thieves.
Scheck couldn't help be impressed by the choreography.
"They executed while the iron was hot. They got in and got out," she said.
In the end, the victims weren't individuals. They were two banks, Rakbank in the United Arab Emirates and the Bank of Muscat in Oman, which had their card processors breached, prosecutors said.
More investigations continue and other arrests have been made in other countries, but New York prosecutors did not have details. More arrests in the U.S. were possible, they said.
Police in Duesseldorf, Germany, said a 56-year-old woman and her 34-year-old son were linked to the case earlier this year and are still in investigative detention after having been arrested in February. They have refused to speak to police.
In New York, the cell was led by Alberto Lajud Pena, 23, who was found dead in the Dominican Republic with $100,000 in cash on him, prosecutors said. A man arrested in his death told authorities it was a botched robbery, and two other suspects were on the lam.
According to court documents, Lajud Pena communicated via email with a Russian criminal organization that specializes in laundering money and wrote to his shadowy bosses in charge of the operation. He wired money and deposited cash into several accounts.
"I sent scanned deposit slips," Lajud Pena writes in one.
"Deposit has cleared. Order paid. Good job," the sender replies.
Prosecutors said Lajud Pena recruited men he knew from Yonkers, some of whom worked as bus drivers for a company that provided services to special-needs students.
All but one of the surviving suspects were in jail, and it wasn't clear who was representing them. In Yonkers Friday, neighbors at the basement apartment where authorities said they seized $3,740 of the stolen money said police had visited two days in a row last month.
About $2 million is still missing, officials said.
Associated Press writers Peter Svensson and James Fitzgerald in New York, Frank Jordans in Berlin and writer Ezequiel Abiú López in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, contributed to this report.


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John Chrystal Center, Room 116
1103 Park St.
Grinnell, IA 50112
United States
Carlie VanWilligen
Director of Institutional Research
Carlie has worked for Grinnell College in various capacities since 1996. Beginning in Information Technology Services, she worked her way from training coordinator to systems analyst before turning her attention to institutional research. As Director of Institutional Research, Carlie is responsible for creating and maintaining information systems in support of research requests from administration and faculty, coordinating Grinnell's external reporting (IPEDS, common data set, US News, Princeton Review, and others), managing components of assessment and accreditation activities, and providing data extracts for research. In addition to her work in analytic support and institutional research, she has also served on the inaugural staff council, benefits committee, assessment committee, strategic planning committee, budget planning committee, and participates in many other campus activities.
Carlie has taught in higher education for 20 years, both in information technology and general education. Carlie earned her B.A degree in Mathematics from Simpson College and an M.B.A. from St. Ambrose University. When she isn't counting things in support of data and research, she can be found reading mysteries where she figures out "who done it" before the end, or taking classes in subjects that interest her.
Skills and Interests
- Merging data from multiple systems into usable formats.
- Understanding which sources of information will best meet a request's needs.
- Bridging academics and administration using common data structures and language.
- Finding opportunities to incorporate the work of analytic support and institutional research with other offices.
- Working on new ways to approach data and its use in decision making.


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Peter Breck, who played Magus (and Agent Masters) as part of the David Grey story line (watch clips below) in GENERAL HOSPITAL in 1982, died Monday in Vancouver after a long illness. He was 82.
A native of Haverhill, Mass., and the son of a jazz musician, Breck scored a contract at Warner Bros. and appeared in dozens of shows from the mid-1950s to the early 2000s, including THE VIRGINIAN, HAWAIIAN EYE, PERRY MASON, LAWMAN, BRANDED, GUNSMOKE, FANTASY ISLAND, THE FALL GUY and JOHN DOE.
His film work included roles in Thunder Road (1958), I Want to Live! (1958), The Beatniks (1960), Portrait of a Mobster (1961), Lad: A Dog (1962), Samuel Fuller's Shock Corridor (1963) and Benji (1974).
On THE BIG VALLEY, Breck played Nick Barkley, who lost his temper easily and was often spoiling for a fight. Nick was the brother of the characters played by Richard Long, Charles Briles and Linda Evans and the half-brother to Lee Majors. He stayed close with Stanwyck after the show finished production.
In the mid-1980s, Breck moved to Vancouver, worked in theater and opened an acting school. His wife of 51 years, Diane, wrote on his website that he was suffering from dementia and had been hospitalized since January 10.
Watch some scenes including Breck on GENERAL HOSPITAL below:
Friday, February 10, 2012
2 comments:
- AnonymousFebruary 11, 2012 at 3:38 PM
RIP Peter. I loved his portrayal of Nick on the Big Valley.
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DETROIT (AP) -- General Motors, beware.
Wednesday's announcement that Toyota will pay $1.2 billion to avoid criminal prosecution for hiding information in a recall case could be a glimpse into your future. It's also a warning to anyone selling cars in the U.S.: Although the federal government's road-safety watchdog doesn't have big fangs, the Justice Department does.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's maximum fine for hiding information is $35 million, a pittance to automakers. But the Justice Department can reach deeper into your wallet and hurt your reputation with damning public statements.
Shortly after the announcement, Attorney General Eric Holder issued an apparent warning to GM and other automakers, saying the Toyota deal was "not necessarily the only time we will use this approach."
General Motors Co., which is facing a federal criminal probe over delays in recalling small cars with a deadly ignition switch problem, has many parallels to the Toyota case.
Toyota got into trouble for withholding information from NHTSA about floor mats that can trap gas pedals and make cars accelerate wildly, and for concealing a problem with sticky gas pedals that can cause unwanted acceleration. According to court records, the company recalled some models for the floor mats while knowing that others had the same problem.
At GM, the company has admitted knowing about the ignition-switch problem for more than a decade, yet it failed to recall 1.6 million small cars until last month. During the wait, at least a dozen people died in crashes because the faulty switches moved out of the run position, disabling power steering and brakes. Air bags also didn't inflate.
"We now see what GM may be facing," said Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit and a former Justice Department prosecutor. "If you have comparable conduct inside the company, the government is going to come down hard."
The Toyota payment changes the model for regulating auto safety in the U.S. Before Wednesday, safety issues had been almost the exclusive domain of NHTSA. Now, the government has raised the stakes with criminal actions, Henning said.
"GM has to be concerned what kind of a hit there is going to be to the bottom line," said Henning, who predicted that GM's penalty could rise toward $2 billion because its recall delays lasted longer than Toyota's.
The Toyota penalty is a "game changer" that will force automakers to take notice, said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety. "Until today, automakers faced insignificant fines and no criminal penalties," he said.
Even with a $1.2 billion penalty, the bigger issue for both GM and Toyota is damage to reputations.
Before a highly publicized 2009 unintended acceleration crash that killed a California Highway Patrol officer and three family members, Toyota was known by all for reliability, and it was gobbling up sales and market share in the U.S.
The crash triggered the recall of more than 10 million vehicles and raised suspicions about Toyota's safety. From 2010 through 2012, NHTSA fined the company a total of $66 million for safety-related violations, further harming its reputation.
Since the California crash, Toyota's U.S. market share has dropped more than four percentage points, to 13.3 percent last month. Today, a single point of market share equals more than 150,000 cars and trucks, the equivalent of millions in profits every year.
And Wednesday's statements from the Justice Department likely will raise further suspicions about Toyota.
In court documents, prosecutors said Toyota misled customers by assuring them that it had addressed the root cause of the acceleration problems, while knowing that cars outside the recall had the same problems. Toyota did this to defend its brand image after the California crash, the documents said.
"In other words, Toyota confronted a public-safety emergency as it if were a simple public-relations problem," Holder said Wednesday at a news conference.
Toyota says it has put reforms in place to make sure this doesn't happen again.
But statements like Holder's must have GM worried about damage to its brand image and a hit to its stock price.
The company has tried to portray itself as transparent, submitting to NHTSA two chronologies admitting mistakes. Its new CEO has apologized several times to families of those injured or killed in crashes. The company has also placed safety in the hands of a single executive and hired outside legal counsel to investigate its conduct.
Still, in just one day last week, GM's stock value fell 5 percent, reducing the total value of the company by $3.2 billion, according to Barclays analyst Brian Johnson.
Itay Micheli, an analyst for Citi Research, wrote that only about one percentage point of Toyota's market share slide came from the recall crisis. Toyota blames the drop on an artificially high market share in 2009 due to high gas prices that boosted sales of its fuel-efficient models.
"The GM situation is far from an easy call, but we think the risk of Toyota-like share losses would only come into play if the headline situation materially worsens," Micheli wrote.
GM's brands also aren't as strong as Toyota's were at the time of the recalls. Before bankruptcy, GM cars had a reputation for poor reliability, although the company has made great strides toward erasing that.
GM's recalls, at 1.6 million worldwide, are far smaller than Toyota's, so the cost to the company will be far less. GM said Wednesday it would take a $300 million charge this quarter for the small-car recall and several others.
Also, Toyota had to recall models that were on sale at the time. GM has tried to distance itself from the recalled cars, saying they were made years ago by the old GM, the one that went into bankruptcy protection.
Even with the settlement, the ordeal isn't over for Toyota, and it's just starting for GM. Both companies still face lawsuits over the recalls, and they will see bad publicity every time there's a verdict. GM, though, is not liable for legal claims from crashes that occurred before it left bankruptcy in July 2009. Such claims would go to a trust formed to settle claims against the pre-bankruptcy company.
However, lawyers are researching whether they can prove that GM knew about the ignition-switch problem during the bankruptcy but did not disclose it to the judge. In that case, the new GM might be liable for older claims.
Associated Press Writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.
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Friday, September 5, 2008
Works in Progress
I am participating in Another Little Quilt Swap again. I have the little quilt I am making pieced. Here is a picture of it, as I get ready to baste it and then hand quilt it. The pattern is a flower basket that I found on Jinny Beyer's website. I have always been a fan of her work.
Here is a knitted shawl that I have been working on for several months now. It gets put aside whenever there is a quilt to work on, but I am slowly getting it finished. I am a self-taught knitter. I have only done a couple of simple sweaters (intimidated by the necks and sleeves) and was not really happy with how they turned out. I usually stick to hats and scarves. A love of lace work has drawn me into knitting shawls. The pattern is from All Tangled Up and is called Kiri Shawl (pdf of pattern). I am using Kid Merino yarn (color 4677). I'll finish it eventually and will show you the finished shawl then.
3 comments:
- StitchinByTheLake said...
Jinny Beyer does the most incredible work - her sense of color amazes me. You have chosen fabrics that remind me of the ones she chooses - they are truly wonderful. I'm a self-taught knitter, too, but not a good one. I've only done one shawl and a few dish rags. I'm not sure that qualifies me to be called knitter! blessings, marlene
- September 5, 2008 at 7:38 PM
- Dr. Smak said...
The shawl looks lovely. I haven't tackled any lacework yet - can't wait to see it completed!
- September 6, 2008 at 2:08 PM
- Cathy said...
The design on that quilt is beautiful and I love your shawl. I am not good at knitting, but I can crochet up a storm.
- September 7, 2008 at 2:36 AM
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Dangerous virus newly found in humans diagnosed in France
(CNN) -- A newly discovered and often deadly virus related to one that causes the common cold has struck another victim, this time in France.
A man hospitalized in April is infected with the novel coronavirus, France's Health Ministry said Thursday.
The NCoV virus was recently found for the first time in humans and scattered cases have occurred across parts of the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia.
It has proved deadly in more than half of the confirmed cases so far, according to the World Health Organization. Of 31 people with confirmed infections, at least 18 have died.
But infectious disease specialists believe the virus is very difficult to catch.
The newly infected man is the first confirmed infection in France, the Health Ministry said. He had recently returned from travel to the United Arab Emirates, which is on the Arabian Peninsula.
Identifying the source of the man's ailment took time, the ministry said. France's Pasteur Institute confirmed the case Wednesday. The Health Ministry is seeking anyone who may have had contact with the patient.
NCoV, like some common colds, is also caused by a coronavirus. And like a cold, it attacks the respiratory system, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said.
But symptoms are severe and can lead to pneumonia and even kidney failure.
"Once it gets you, it's a very serious infection," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
NCoV has also been compared to related coronavirus, the one that causes SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, which appears to have been contained in 2004, according to the CDC.
Although its discovery in humans is new, NCoV would seem potentially deadlier, when contracted, than SARS.
Of the some 8,000 verified cases of SARS, fewer than 800 people -- less than one-tenth of those infected -- died.


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4102.0 - Australian Social Trends, 1996
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 24/06/1996
Page tools: Print Page Print All | |||
Definitions and references
Alterations and additions - all approved structural and non-structural changes to a dwelling of a value of not less than $10,000 which are integral to the functional and structural design of the dwelling, e.g garages, carports, pergolas, reroofing, recladding etc., but excluding swimming pools, ongoing repairs, landscaping, and maintenance and home improvements not involving building work.
Applicants accommodated - the total number of public rental applicants accommodated in a year.
Average weekly earnings index - the total weekly ordinary time (before tax) earnings of full-time adult employees divided by the total number of full-time adult employees and expressed as an index with base year 1989-90=100.
Being purchased - a dwelling that is currently being purchased for accommodation by the occupant(s) by means of a mortgagor or other form of finance.
Established house price index - the price of detached residential dwellings on their own block of land, regardless of age (i.e including new houses sold as a house/land package as well as older houses) expressed as an index with base year 1989-90=100.
Finance commitments - firm offers to provide finance for owner-occupation or alterations and additions which have been, or are normally expected to be, accepted. Commitments to provide housing finance to employees and commitments accepted and cancelled in the same month are included.
Flats and apartments - dwellings contained in blocks having two or more storeys of dwelling units.
Household - a person living alone or a group of related or unrelated people who usually reside and eat together.
Houses - dwellings separated from other dwellings, buildings or structures by space of at least half a metre to allow access on all sides. This category also includes houses which have an attached flat.
Housing interest rate - the financial year annual average of the interest rate applicable on the last working day of each month to standard variable rate loans for owner-occupation of large bank housing lenders. It is the predominant or representative rate (or range of rates) of major banks, although some banks may quote rates outside the ranges.
Housing waiting list - the number of applicants (households) waiting for public rental accommodation on 30 June.
Materials used in house building price index - prices of selected materials used in the construction of dwellings expressed as an index with base year 1989-90=100. Data for national total is a weighted average of six state capital cities.
Mean weekly rent
Occupied private dwellings - the premises occupied by a household.
Owned - a dwelling owned outright by one or more of the occupants.
Private/public sector dwellings completed - when building activity has progressed to the stage where the building can fulfil its intended function. The ABS regards buildings as completed when notified as such by the respondents (builders) to the survey.
Private rental index - the average rent of privately owned dwellings (rented through real estate agents in each capital city) expressed as an index with base year 1989-90=100.
Project home price index - the price of dwellings available for construction on a client's block of land expressed as an index with base year 1989-90=100.
Public rental - dwellings rented from a State Housing Department, Trust or Commission, the ACT Housing Trust or the Northern Territory Department of Lands, Housing and Local Government.
Public rental index - the average rent of government authority dwellings in metropolitan areas expressed as an index with base year 1989-90=100.
Public sector dwelling stock - those rental dwellings held by state housing authorities.
Size of new private/public sector houses - average floor area of houses intended for private/public ownership at building completion.


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1 result
Prices may vary in club and online
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Beverage Equipment for Your Restaurant or Bar
Your restaurant or bar patrons might take their drinks for granted, but you know just how much can go into providing the beverages your customers want. You need beverage equipment, drink service, and bar supplies that allow you to satisfy your thirsty customers. Let Sam's Club help! We offer beverage equipment and bar supplies from the top names in the industry, all at great prices that can help keep your business under budget. Explore our selection of coffee makers, coffee and tea servers, drink dispensers, and bar supplies to find exactly the beverage equipment your restaurant needs.


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Show All Answers
Use the search by address tool to find your subject property in the city map viewer, then use the 'Print Tax Map" or "Print Lot" on the info window that pops up. One is the complete Tax Map, 24"x36".map, the "Print Lot" creates a letter size map of that subject property only.
We offer certain GIS layers and CAD data when requested for surveyors, engineers, developers. Please use contact information above.


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February 22-24, 2013
Hilton Los Angeles International Airport
LXC (Linux Containers) is a lightweight virtualization system. It allows to create (within a Linux machine) multiple environments (or containers), each of them being invisible and impervious to the others.
LXC is similar to OpenVZ, VServer, FreeBSD jails, or even Solaris Zones: they can all be seen as improvements over a basic "chroot", isolating processes within a common host kernel, with very low overhead. This contrasts with KVM, Xen, or VirtualBox, which all emulate a complete machine, with its own kernel, and a higher overhead. Of course, virtual machines have their advantages as well: for instance, they make it possible to run a Windows VM inside a Linux machine (or vice versa), while LXC only deals with Linux processes.
LXC relies on two significant feature sets of the kernel: kernel namespaces, and control groups. Kernel namespaces provide basic isolation, making sure that each container cannot "see" or affect other containers. We will explain the different kinds of namespaces, to give a strong understanding of the low-level mechanisms at the heart of LXC. Control groups, on the other hands, are used to allocate resources (memory, CPU, I/O...) between containers. We will detail the most useful knobs which can be tuned to adjust resources allocated to containers.
We will then explain how to leverage on unioning filesystems to provision new containers. While not strictly necessary to LXC, unioning filesystems allow to provision new environments very quickly (less than a second) and very cheaply (much less than a megabyte). We will give some technical details to explain pros and cons of unioning filesystems, and how to work around potential issues.
Finally, we will give technical details about "lxc-attach", a tool which makes containers administration much easier, but requires specific kernel patches. We will discuss the issue and how to work around it, with and without kernel patching.
Those techniques have been used in production at dotCloud since 2010, on a cluster of a few hundreds of machines; some of them hosting thousands of containers.


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The devil is in the details, the saying goes. When it comes to B2B selling, the dollars are also in the details.
That's something I learned many years ago while writing about the reseller channel. Back in 2000, the Internet caused significant disruptions of traditional reseller relationships, because many large technology vendors expected online sales to eliminate the need for resellers. They tried to sell direct, but failed to grasp the value that resellers provided to their end-user customers. So in 2000 and 2001, they tried to win back their jilted resellers.
The result was a bit of a free-for-all as large vendors tried hard to woo major resellers. The lengths they went to were astounding, costly, and — all too often — fruitless.
A Chip Shot Wins the Sale
One reseller of note allowed me to quiz him about what he'd been subjected to in this process. He'd finally gone with HP as his primary hardware vendor. Why? Was it because he'd been flown out to the HP World show in San Francisco and immersed in the company's ecosystem? Was it the conference in Orlando that exposed him to HP's long-term vision? Was it the in-depth examinations of the product that HP managers had given him?
What turned the tables was that HP's channel manager had taken him golfing.
No other vendor had spotted the fact that this reseller was a huge golf nut. From the autographed photos of PGA pros in his office, to the golfing trophies on the shelf, to the bag of clubs propped in the corner — the signs were all right there. But no one picked up on the details.
Send Me a Signal, Throw Me a Line
How effective are you at spotting the signs?
This is really an old school sales talent; the cold read that can build instant rapport if done right. In the digital era — and this extends back 15 years — we have come to depend on technology to sort, order, and prioritize data about customers. Too often this data is centered on the seller's business: How did a prospect react to our marketing piece? How often did the prospect visit our website? Which pieces of our content did the prospect download? All of this is useful, and it can take you a long way down the sales relationship toward a closed deal.
It leaves out the buyer, however, and the things about him or her that make them unique. Without spotting these details, you're fighting the battle with one hand tied behind your back. If you can discover those details and act on them, you can demonstrate that you care about the buyer as a person, that you bother to notice things about him or her, and that you're there as more than a salesperson.
Digging Up the Details
This is where social media and social CRM can be such tremendous resources. In the past, salespeople had to be skilled at the cold read once they reached their prospects' offices. These days, a few minutes on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter often reveals key details about prospects, and in a more complete and contextual way than sales pros had access to in the past.
If you can incorporate these details into your customer records within CRM, they become an ongoing aspect of your relationship with that customer. Better yet, you can build in time-based aspects of a customer's details. If he was planning to go on a vacation, or if she was looking forward to a child's graduation, you can note that and mention it during your next call with the customer. These details can help you get that first sale — but they're even better at making sure you get all the sales that come after that.
In this era, the most successful sales pros are not the ones who care most about closing sales. They're the ones who care most about their customers, and solving their customers' problems. Building relationships is critical to that, and the details are critical to building the relationships — but few among us can keep an encyclopedic knowledge of our customers' personal details in our heads.
CRM can give your memory that boost — if you choose to use it that way.


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This article is more than 1 year old
Counter-terror police arrest Tory frontbencher
Crazed over-reaction much?
Shadow immigration minister Damian Green was arrested and questioned by Metropolitan police for nine hours yesterday.
His home and office in Kent were searched along with an address in West London. Green's office at the House of Commons was also searched. It is believed the investigation is linked to the leaking of embarrassing information from the Home Office - a Home Office official was arrested last week in connection with leaked documents.
David Davis told the BBC the case was reminiscent of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.
A spokesman for the Met told The Register: "A 52-year old man was arrested in Kent yesterday he has been bailed to return to a central London police station in February."
A spokesman for the Tory Party said: "As Shadow Immigration Minister Mr Green has, on a number of occasions, legitimately revealed information which the Home Office chose not to make public. Disclosure of this information was manifestly in the public interest."
"Mr Green denies any wrongdoing and stands by his actions."
It is highly unusual for police to arrest serving MPs - an informal interview is the more normal route. Home Office officials insist the investigation was started after they complained to the Met and that no ministers were involved.
The leaks are believed to include: revealing that Jacqui Smith knew the Security Industry Authority had given licenses to 5,000 illegal immigrants, that an illegal immigrant was working as a cleaner in the House of Commons and a letter from Jacqui Smith warning that a recession would likely lead to an increase in crime.
Despite the denials it seems highly unlikely that the Met police would make such an arrest without informing ministers.
All the more so, after it emerged that Mayor of London Boris Johnson was told in advance of the operation and had expressed "trenchant" concerns.
A statement from Johnson's office said: "The mayor finds it hard to believe that on the day when terrorists have gone on the rampage in India that anti-terror police in Britain have apparently targeted an elected representative of Parliament for no greater crime than allegedly receiving leaked documents."®


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Access to Public Information
Public Records
Access to Public Information
The Massachusetts Public Records Law provides that every person has a right of access to public information. This right of access includes the right to inspect, copy or have copies of records provided, upon the payment of a reasonable fee.
Photographs, Papers, Electronic Media
The Massachusetts General Laws broadly define "public records" to include all documentary materials or data, regardless of physical form or characteristics, which are made or received by any officer or employee of any Massachusetts governmental entity. As a result, all photographs, papers and electronic storage media including electronic mail of which a governmental employee is the "custodian" constitute "public records." There are, however, 15 narrowly construed exemptions to this broad definition of "public records."
Requests may be oral or written, and may be made in person, through the mail, by fax, or through electronic mail. A reasonable description of the document(s) requested should be provided, to assist the custodian in identifying the requested documents. The custodian has up to 10 business days to provide a response to the request. The custodian is only required to provide records that are in existence and is not required to create a new record based on material in his/her custody to accommodate a specific request.
The fee for copies of written documents is 5¢ per page for photocopies or computer printouts. Additional fees may be charged for over-sized documents (such as maps and plans, which cannot be copied with a standard photocopier), and for staff time to search for the records, prepare for copying, photocopy and refile. The custodian is required to provide the requester with a good-faith estimate of the cost if is expected to exceed $10.
Additional Resources
For further information, or to download a Guide to the Public Records Law, please visit the State Public Records Division website.
Records Access Officer
Colette Williams, Records Access Officer
2198 Main St Brewster, MA 02631
Phone: 508-896-4506
Fax: 508-896-8089
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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New York, NY — Publication of data from three trials of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV – including the pivotal Partners PrEP trial – today in the New England Journal of Medicine provides strong evidence that HIV-negative men and women who consistently take a daily antiretroviral (ARV) pill (either TDF/FTC, brand name Truvada, or TDF, brand name Viread) can significantly reduce their risk of HIV infection.
The New England Journal of Medicine articles provide an in-depth review of safety, efficacy, adherence and risk behaviors in three trials whose primary results have been previously presented at scientific conferences and to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as part of its ongoing review of Gilead Sciences' application for a prevention indication for TDF/FTC for HIV-negative adults. Data from the three studies—including the FEM-PrEP study, which was stopped early for futility—underscore the need for adherence to the prescribed regimen of a once-daily pill to achieve protection from HIV infection.
"The evidence published today is clear: If you perceive yourself to be at risk, if you take your pill daily, and if you receive the drug as part of a comprehensive package of HIV prevention interventions and testing, oral PrEP can dramatically reduce your chances of becoming infected," said Mitchell Warren, AVAC executive director.
"Daily oral PrEP is not a silver bullet or a stand-alone prevention solution. There are many strategies that work, including treatment for HIV-positive people, that will need to be brought to scale if we are to have the needed impact on new infections."
"However, there will be men and women around the world for whom daily oral PrEP using TDF/FTC can be a life-saving prevention tool. Choice matters. For the millions of men and women who remain at risk for HIV worldwide, each new HIV prevention option offers additional hope that we will achieve the end of the epidemic."
"Much of the momentum to roll out PrEP has focused on gay men in the United States, and PrEP will be an important option for many gay men. But, as these studies suggest, PrEP is also a viable and important option for heterosexual men and women in Africa and other parts of the world. We must ensure global access to this lifesaving intervention," Warren added.
An action agenda for global PrEP implementation
AVAC is calling for immediate actions to ensure that PrEP can be made available to people at risk of HIV quickly, safely and through programs that maximize safety, use of comprehensive HIV prevention and impact on HIV infections.
AVAC's recommendations include:
• Regulatory approval: The US FDA is considering approval of the drug TDF/FTC (marketed as Truvada) for daily PrEP among adults of risk of HIV infection. The FDA should approve Truvada for prevention. Regulatory agencies in other countries should quickly move to evaluate the evidence from these three trials among heterosexuals and the iPrEx trial among gay and bisexual men and transgender women and fast track regulatory decisions.
• Public health guidance: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and other public health agencies should issue guidance on the appropriate use of daily TDF/FTC as PrEP in different populations and settings as soon as possible. Guidance is needed by providers and people at risk, and to help governments and funders set priorities for PrEP implementation.
• Demonstration projects: Real-world studies are urgently needed to answer important questions about how best to implement PrEP, including who can benefit most; how to provide PrEP safely and efficiently; how to integrate PrEP with other essential prevention methods such as condoms; and how to ensure high levels of adherence, which research has shown to be essential for PrEP to work. Currently, only a limited number of demonstration projects are planned or underway.
• Funding: As robust demonstration projects get underway, donors and governments should be quantifying resource needs for daily oral PrEP to be introduced as a sustained public health initiative for key populations. Funding for PrEP should not detract from other essential HIV prevention and treatment efforts. However, funders and governments should start now to quantify and identify resources for public health programming to bring daily oral PrEP using TDF/FTC to those who need it most.
• Additional research: Studies are currently underway to test PrEP in additional populations, including injecting drug users and to evaluate new drugs and less frequent PrEP dosing schedules. Trial sponsors, manufactures and regulatory agencies should stand ready to act on new data and further expand options for preventing HIV infection.
"PrEP, together with other prevention strategies that we have now and those still to be developed, could help to significantly reduce the global burden of HIV infections and could be a life-saving intervention for some men and women," Warren added. "Multiple clinical trials have clearly shown that PrEP is safe and effective when used as prescribed. But clinical trials are not the 'real world'—they are well-controlled environments designed to give clear data. We all must now act on the scientific evidence and translate it into real-world reductions in HIV infections. We simply cannot afford to dismiss any new options in the quest to end AIDS."
For a PDF version of this press release, click here.
For more information about PrEP and the steps needed to make it available to people in need, visit www.prepwatch.org and www.avac.org/prep.
About AVAC: Founded in 1995, AVAC is a non-profit organization that uses education, policy analysis, advocacy and a network of global collaborations to accelerate the ethical development and global delivery of AIDS vaccines, male circumcision, microbicides, PrEP and other emerging HIV prevention options as part of a comprehensive response to the pandemic.
Contact: Kay Marshall, firstname.lastname@example.com, +1-347-249-6375


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In 1609, two years after English settlers established the colony of Jamestown in Virginia, the Dutch East India Company hired English sailor Henry Hudson to find a northeast passage to India. After unsuccessfully searching for a route above Norway, Hudson turned his ship west and sailed across the Atlantic. Hudson hoped to discover a "northwest passage," that would allow a ship to cross the entirety of the North American continent and gain access to the Pacific Ocean, and from there, India. After arriving off the coast of Cape Cod, Hudson eventually sailed into the mouth of a large river, today called the Hudson River. Making his way as far as present-day Albany before the river became too shallow for his ship to continue north, Hudson returned to Europe and claimed the entire Hudson River Valley for his Dutch employers. After unsuccessful efforts at colonization, the Dutch Parliament chartered the "West India Company," a national-joint stock company that would organize and oversee all Dutch ventures in the Western Hemisphere. Sponsored by the West India Company, 30 families arrived in North America in 1624, establishing a settlement on present-day Manhattan. Much like English colonists in Virginia, however, the Dutch settlers did not take much of an interest in agriculture, and focused on the more lucrative fur trade. In 1626, Director General Peter Minuit arrived in Manhattan, charged by the West India Company with the task of administering the struggling colony. Minuit "purchased" Manhattan Island from Native American Indians for the now legendary price of 60 guilders, formally established New Amsterdam, and consolidated and strengthened a fort located far up the Hudson River, named Fort Orange. The colony grew slowly, as settlers, responding to generous land-grant and trade policies, slowly spread north up the Hudson River. The slow expansion of New Netherland, however, caused conflicts with both English colonists and Native Americans in the region. In the 1630s, the new Director General Wouter van Twiller sent an expedition out from New Amsterdam up to the Connecticut River into lands claimed by English settlers. Faced with the prospect of armed conflict, Twiller was forced to back down and recall the expedition, losing any claims to the Connecticut Valley. In the upper reaches of the Hudson Valley around Fort Orange, (present-day Albany) where the needs of the profitable fur trade required a careful policy of appeasement with the Iroquois Confederacy, the Dutch authorities maintained peace, but corruption and lax trading policies plagued the area. In the lower Hudson Valley, where more colonists were setting up small farms, Native Americans came to be viewed as obstacles to European settlement. In the 1630s and early 1640s, the Dutch Director Generals carried on a brutal series of campaigns against the area's Native Americans, largely succeeding in crushing the strength of the "River Indians," but also managing to create a bitter atmosphere of tension and suspicion between European settlers and Native Americans.
Eventually, Stuyvesant cast his eyes upon the small settlements that had developed along the Hudson River Valley between Fort Orange and New Amsterdam. In 1652, 60-70 settlers had moved down from Fort Orange to an area where the Rondout Creek met the Hudson River, the site of present-day Kingston. The settlers farmed the fertile flood plains of the Esopus Creek side-by-side with the Esopus Indians, the original settlers of the area. Inevitably, land disputes brought the two sides to the brink of war, with both the Europeans and the Esopus Indians engaging in petty vandalism and kidnaping. In 1657, seeing the strategic practicality of a fort located halfway between New Amsterdam and Fort Orange, Director General Stuyvesant sent soldiers up from New Amsterdam to crush the Esopus Indians and help build a stockade with 40 houses for the settlers. Board by board, the settlers took their barns and houses down, and carted them uphill to a promontory bluff overlooking the Esopus Creek flood plain. They reconstructed their homes behind a 14-foot high wall made of tree trunks pounded into the ground that created a perimeter of about 1200 x 1300 feet. By day, the men left their walled village, which Director General Stuyvesant had named "Wiltwyck," to go out and farm their fields, leaving the women and children largely confined within the stockade. The villagers lived this way until 1664, when a peace treaty ended the conflict with the Esopus Indians.
Although Wiltwyck, the second large settlement established north of New Amsterdam, grew quickly, the very successes of the Stuyvesant administration put New Netherland in danger. The colony was proving quite profitable, New Amsterdam had developed into a port town of 1500 citizens, and the incredibly diverse population (only 50 percent were actually Dutch colonists) of the colony had grown from 2,000 in 1655 to almost 9,000 in 1664. "Problems" with Native Americans were mostly over, and stable families were slowly replacing single adventurers interested only in quick profits. New Netherland produced immense wealth for the Dutch, and other foreign nations began to envy the riches flowing out of the Hudson River Valley. The Dutch lost New Netherland to the English during the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1664 only a few years after the establishment of Wiltwyck. Along the West Coast of Africa, British charter companies clashed with the forces of the Dutch West India Company over rights to slaves, ivory, and gold in 1663. Less about slaves or ivory, the Anglo-Dutch Wars were actually more about who would be the dominant European naval power. By 1664, both the Dutch and English were preparing for war, and King Charles of England granted his brother, James, Duke of York, vast American territories that included all of New Netherland. James immediately raised a small fleet and sent it to New Amsterdam. Director General Stuyvesant, without a fleet or any real army to defend the colony, was forced to surrender the colony to the English war fleet without a struggle. In September of 1664, New York was born, effectively ending the Netherlands' direct involvement in North America, although in places like Kingston, the influences of Dutch architecture, planning, and folklife can still be quite clearly seen.
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Thai-Style Chicken Pizza.
I'm not exactly sure just how to get my point across.
But this pizza is GOOD.
Like, reallyreallyreally GOOD.
It's a fabulous change of pace from the heavy and sweet-'til-your-teeth-hurt treats that run amuck this time of year. It's super fresh, light and quick + easy to throw together. Use some pre-made pizza dough and it will be even EASIER! Score.
And while you're at it, can you make me another?
Recipe is on Tasty Kitchen. Get it!